HOLOCAUST survivors and members of the public have gathered across the country to mark the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

This year is the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the largest of the Nazi death camps, where an estimated one million people lost their lives.

Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers the victims of other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg met genocide survivors for a service of remembrance at King's Cross Station in central London, where a candle was lit in memory of those who were killed in some of the worst atrocities in history.

He said that forgetting the Holocaust would be a "betrayal of what those people endured in those horrific circumstances".

"It would be a betrayal of the values of reconciliation which is embodied in this memorial day.

"It would also deprive the generations of today and of the future of the knowledge of history which is such an important inoculation for tragedies in the future."

The UK's chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis delivered an assembly at Copthall School in Barnet, north London, for his first Holocaust Memorial Day address after taking over from Lord Jonathan Sacks.

Lord Sacks stood down after 22 years in the role last year.

Holocaust survivors arrive for to mark the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwit [AP]

The Holocaust stands alone as the darkest hour in human history

Mick Davis, chair of the board of trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council

Prime Minister David Cameron held a reception at Downing Street to mark the event, which was attended by Holocaust survivors.

He also announced that a new commission is to be set up to examine ways to remember and learn about the Holocaust.

Mr Cameron said: "Survivors have played a vital role in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, but we will not always have these remarkable individuals with us.

"We face a real danger that, as the events of the Holocaust become ever more distant, they feel increasingly remote to current and future generations."

Miss Bonham Carter's grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejon, received a posthumous recogniition for his role in saving hundreds of Jews during the Second World War.

She said: "I am very honoured to be asked to join this commission and do so in particular memory of those members of my family who died in the Holocaust and as an inherited responsibility to my grandfather who made a significant personal sacrifice to save hundreds of lives.

"It is our generation's legacy to create a living memory that will survive the survivors and forever remind future generations of the inhumanity man is capable of committing to its own kind."

Helena Bonham Carter lost family in the Belarus' Slonim ghetto [GETTY]

Both she and Natasha Kaplinsky lost members of their family in the Slonim ghetto in Belarus.

Mick Davis, the chair of the board of trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council, will lead the commission.

He said: "The Holocaust stands alone as the darkest hour in human history.

"Our task is to recommend, in addition to what is already done in the United Kingdom, the appropriate way for it to be commemorated so that the memory and lessons of the Holocaust remain central and relevant for future generations."